By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday October 22, 2021
Flavia Pennetta is in the running to become a card-carrying member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2022. The Italian, who become the first player from her country to ever win a US Open singles title in 2015 when she defeated Roberta Vinci, is a bit worried about the sport she left behind five years ago.
Asked about the breakout success of Great Britian’s Emma Raducanu by the Italian publication Corriere Della Serra, Pennetta says that the Brit’s success is not good for tennis.
"I don't like it,” she said. “What is happening, this very strong discontinuity, in my opinion, is not good for tennis. In my time it could never have happened that a young girl played from qualifying, like Emma Raducanu in New York, to win a Grand Slam.”
Pennetta said that the talent at the top of the sport in her generation would have made sure a success like Raducanu’s did not happen.
"Top athletes made too much difference,” she said, adding: “There is something wrong… Charisma is missing, so women's tennis is more difficult to sell."
Pennetta joins fellow Grand Slam singles winners Ana Ivanovic, Carlos Moya, Grand Slam doubles legend Cara Black as new nominees on the International Tennis Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 2022; they join holdovers Lisa Raymond and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The six nominees are all eligible in the Hall of Fame’s Player Category for the Class of 2022, according to the Hall of Fame. This is not an eligibility year for the Hall of Fame’s Contributor or Wheelchair Categories, which are considered every four years.
To be elected into the Hall of Fame, a candidate must receive an affirmative vote of 75% or higher from the combined total of their Official Voting Group result and any bonus percentage points earned in the Fan Vote.
2021 saw Goran Ivanisevic, Conchita Martinez and Dennis Van der Meer inducted.